List of UK singles chart number ones of the 1960s
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:UK number-one singles
The UK singles chart is the official record chart in the United Kingdom. Prior to 1969 there was no official singles chart;<ref name="McAleer">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Independent">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BrownKutnerWarwick">Template:Cite book</ref> however, The Official Charts Company and Guinness' British Hit Singles & Albums regard the canonical sources as New Musical Express (NME) before 10 March 1960 and Record Retailer from then until 15 February 1969 when Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to compile the charts.<ref name="McAleer"/><ref name="The Official Charts Company">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The choice to use Record Retailer as the canonical source for the 1960s has been contentious because NME (which continued compiling charts beyond March 1960) had the biggest circulation of periodicals in the decade and was more widely followed.<ref name="McAleer"/><ref name="Independent"/>
As well as the chart compilers mentioned previously, Melody Maker, Disc and Record Mirror all compiled their own charts during the decade. Due to the lack of any official chart the BBC aggregated results from all these charts to announce its own Pick of the Pops chart.<ref name="McAleer" /> One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade".<ref name="BrownKutnerWarwick" /> The sample size of Record Retailer in the early 1960s was around 30 stores whereas NME and Melody Maker were sampling over 100 stores.<ref name="McAleer" /> In 1969, the first BMRB chart was compiled using postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.<ref name="The Official Charts Company" />
In terms of number-one singles, The Beatles were the most successful group of the decade having seventeen singles reach the top spot.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The longest duration of a single at number-one was eight weeks and this was achieved on three occasions: "It's Now or Never" by Elvis Presley in 1960; "Wonderful Land" by The Shadows in 1962 and "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies in 1969. The Beatles' song "She Loves You" became the best-selling single of all time in 1963, a record it held until 1977 when band member Paul McCartney's new band, Wings, surpassed it with "Mull of Kintyre".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "She Loves You" was the best-selling song of the decade and one of fourteen songs believed to have sold over one million copies in the 1960s.<ref name="Million"/><ref name="EveryHit"/><ref name="BPI20">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Number-one singles
| † | Best-selling single of the year<ref name="BS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
|---|---|---|
| ‡ | Best-selling single of the decade<ref name="BS"/> |
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By artist
The following artists achieved three or more number-one hits during the 1960s.
| Artist | Number ones | Weeks at number one |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Sortname | 17 | 69 |
| Template:Sortname | 11 | 44 |
| Template:Sortname | 8 | 18 |
| Template:Sortname | 7 | 20 |
| Template:Sortname | 5 | 16 |
| Template:Sortname | 4 | 17 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 12 |
| Gerry and the Pacemakers | 3 | 11 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 9 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 7 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 7 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 7 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 5 |
| Template:Sortname | 3 | 4 |
By record label
The following record labels had five or more number ones on the UK Singles Chart during the 1960s.
| Record label | Number ones |
|---|---|
| Columbia | 35 |
| Parlophone | 23 |
| Decca | 22 |
| Pye/Pye International | 19 |
| RCA | 17 |
| CBS | 7 |
| London | 7 |
| His Master's Voice | 7 |
| Philips | 7 |
| Fontana | 5 |
Million-selling and gold records
The Shadows instrumental, "Apache", is the oldest 1960s release to be awarded a gold record but not the first to actually receive the award.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The awarding of seventeenTemplate:According to whom? gold records to records released in the 1960s is documented and, notably, five were awarded to releases by The Beatles. Although The Righteous Brothers first released "Unchained Melody" in August 1965 it had more success after being re-released in the 1990s reaching number one and selling over one million copies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
| Artist | Song | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref><ref name="EveryHit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
CitationClass=web
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Sort | "Apache" | 1963 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "It's Now or Never" | 1960 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "Stranger on the Shore" | 1962 | |||
| Template:Sortname and The Shadows | "The Young Ones" | 1962 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "I Remember You" | 1962 | |||
| Template:Sort | "She Loves You" | 1963 | |||
| Template:Sort | "I Want to Hold Your Hand" | 1963 | |||
| Template:Sort | "Can't Buy Me Love" | 1964 | |||
| Template:Sort | "I Feel Fine" | 1964 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "Tears" | 1965 | |||
| Template:Sort | "The Carnival Is Over" | 1965 | |||
| Template:Sort | "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" | 1965–66 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "Green, Green Grass of Home" | 1966 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "Release Me" | 1967 | |||
| Template:Sortname | "The Last Waltz" | 1967 | |||
| Template:Sort | "Congratulations" | 1968<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | |||
| Template:Sort | "Sugar, Sugar" | 1970.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> |
Notes
References
Further reading
- Davis, Sharon. Every Chart-Topper Tells a Story: The Sixties. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1997 Template:ISBN, 288p.